Surgeons operate on baby to stop seizures

Epilepsy is a debilitating illness which doctors are still struggling to understand. What we do understand is that it is a kind of electrical storm in the brain. At its most extreme it can make a person’s life very hard to lead. Even apart from the immediate physical problems associated with seizures, memory loss is a freqent side-effect. Imagine how difficult it would be to lead your life if you temporarily lost your memory three times a day for an hour at a time.

For a child, memory loss is an even greater problem. It is very difficult to learn about the world if you are continually interrupted and have to start again. When epilepsy is at its most extreme, an extreme intervention is sometimes necessary. One method for dealing with epilepsy is by surgically disconnecting the two hemispheres of the brain.